Andrew Moriarty has been reading science fiction his whole life, and he always wondered about the stories he read. How did they ever pay the mortgage for that space ship? Why doesn’t it ever need to be refueled? What would happen if it broke, but the parts were backordered for weeks? And why doesn’t anybody ever have to charge sales tax? Despairing on finding the answers to these questions, he decided to write a book about how space ships would function in the real world. Ships need fuel, fuel costs money, and the accountants run everything. He was born in Canada, and has lived in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Germany, and Maastricht. Previously he worked as a telephone newspaper subscriptions salesman, a pizza delivery driver, wedding disc jockey, and technology trainer. Unfortunately, he also spent a great deal of time in the IT industry, designing networks and configuring routers and switches. Along the way, he picked up an ex-spy with a predilection for French Champagne, and a whippet with a murderous possessiveness for tennis balls. They live together in Brooklyn.